Hey guys, it's been a while but I've written another article and Curt's put it up on TFSource.

 

The Red footed European G1 Optimus Prime:

http://www.tfsource.com/articles/Redfoot.html

 

Hope you enjoy the read.

 

All the best

Maz

Prime with red feet, how strange.

Interesting read... I still have yet to get 1 complete Prime, so I am more than jealous...

I've always been curious about the Prime variants. A few years ago I got a loose Prime in fantastic condition off ebay (near perfect as far as I can see) that has the light blue roller/trailer pieces. Exactly how rare is it? It wasn't complete either, I need missiles for it, should I look for missiles with a difference in color and is there somewhere I could find them other than ebay? and are there any other differences that you could tell me about it?

 

Any additional info you can give me would be great!

as far as I knew the light blue was only the 2nd release in G2, first release was the dark blue/purple.

as far as I knew the light blue was only the 2nd release in G2, first release was the dark blue/purple.

Nah, the very first release of the Optimus Prime mould was the Diaclone Battle Convoy.

 

Have a look at the blue parts on that here:

http://diaclone.net/orid/dia052/index.html

 

Not only does that light blue G1 Prime have the same coloured parts, it also shares the same copyright. "TAKARA JAPAN". G2 would have had Hasbro stampings. So not only is the light blue Prime G1, it is tremendously early pre-rub G1.

 

There are other moulding give-aways as well. There were sooo many moulds of Optimus Prime floating about at the same time, but this one of the very first.

 

One of the nicest things (to me) that I own is my early pre rub Thundercracker. Now the Diaclone TC had pointy wings and no copyright, but TF TC had rounded wingtips. The Thundercracker I have also has no copyright and the wingtips have been manually sanded down because it came out in the very first wave of US TFs, the mould had not been retooled yet to reflect the safety measures in the US.

 

All the best

Maz

I've always been curious about the Prime variants. A few years ago I got a loose Prime in fantastic condition off ebay (near perfect as far as I can see) that has the light blue roller/trailer pieces. Exactly how rare is it? It wasn't complete either, I need missiles for it, should I look for missiles with a difference in color and is there somewhere I could find them other than ebay? and are there any other differences that you could tell me about it?

 

Any additional info you can give me would be great!

Hi there,

 

If your light blue Prime has just "T" (no number)in the lynchpin hole and is stamped "TAKARA JAPAN" only, then it's the early one. I think it is pretty rare in complete nice condition. I've seen a couple of tattered ones. There certainly hasn't been enough complete ones around for any documentation to exist (before mine) about its accessories or exact moulding details.

 

The missiles are just those dark blue ones you see with regular Primes. It doesn't have the grey missiles that come with the grey roller/metal trailer plate Prime.

 

The fists and accessories are NOT the bloated ones and he does not have the fat gun. Roller is light blue with the two long pegs at the back. The red cab should have no circles on the front chrome fender and obviously no rubsign.

 

As it says in the article, the trailer may also be a slightly lighter shade of grey a la Diaclone Battle Convoy. It's a pretty eye-catching and nice looking Prime variant, not to mention one of the absolute earliest TF Primes :)

 

All the best

Maz

Looks like he's wearing little red booties

You want Prime variations?

 

http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vprime.html

I've always been curious about the Prime variants. A few years ago I got a loose Prime in fantastic condition off ebay (near perfect as far as I can see) that has the light blue roller/trailer pieces. Exactly how rare is it? It wasn't complete either, I need missiles for it, should I look for missiles with a difference in color and is there somewhere I could find them other than ebay? and are there any other differences that you could tell me about it?

 

Any additional info you can give me would be great!

Hi there,

 

If your light blue Prime has just "T" (no number)in the lynchpin hole and is stamped "TAKARA JAPAN" only, then it's the early one. I think it is pretty rare in complete nice condition. I've seen a couple of tattered ones. There certainly hasn't been enough complete ones around for any documentation to exist (before mine) about its accessories or exact moulding details.

 

The missiles are just those dark blue ones you see with regular Primes. It doesn't have the grey missiles that come with the grey roller/metal trailer plate Prime.

 

The fists and accessories are NOT the bloated ones and he does not have the fat gun. Roller is light blue with the two long pegs at the back. The red cab should have no circles on the front chrome fender and obviously no rubsign.

 

As it says in the article, the trailer may also be a slightly lighter shade of grey a la Diaclone Battle Convoy. It's a pretty eye-catching and nice looking Prime variant, not to mention one of the absolute earliest TF Primes :)

 

All the best

Maz

I just dug mine out to check for what you said, and YEP it's the early version. It's not mint but it's in excellent condition considering its age. There is only very slight wear in the chrome and perfect tires. The biggest flaw is a couple of peeling stickers and one that was applied a bit crooked, but they're all in very good shape too and I'm sure they can probably be fixed.

 

Anyway, thanks for the info, I'll make sure to take extra special care of this Prime!